Presentation
Helping Smallholder Crop Farmers Adapt to Climate Change: Co-design of a Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool
DescriptionThe largest proportion of farmers in South Africa are smallholder crop farmers. These are farmers with limited access to technology, finances, or information, who rely on rain-fed agriculture which is highly susceptible to climate variability. Crop yields have already been negatively impacted by climate change and these are predicted to worsen by 2050. Seasonal Climate Forecast (SCFs) can provide insights into medium term meteorological conditions to help farmers adapt their farming inputs to manage risk and support their food security. This study adopted an ergonomics/human factors (E/HF) approach to co-designing an SCF tool to assist smallholder farmers to access, explore, understand, and facilitate the extraction of actionable information for their farming decision-making. The co-design process was undertaken in five steps, across three districts in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: (1) observations of 9 farmers; (2) interviews with 16 farmers; (3) prototype online platform; (4) focus group discussions with 8 groups; (5) user-testing of revised prototype with 9 farmers and 43 extension officers. Despite the positive impressions from farmers and extension officers a number of user interface issues were identified during user-testing that need to be amended during the second iteration of the prototype.
Event Type
Lecture
TimeWednesday, October 15th11:30am - 11:50am CDT
LocationGrand Hall I
Forensic Professional
Sustainability
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